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Sanctions

Jun 09, 2025 Editorial, News

Editorial…

Kaieteur News – President Irfaan Ali insists that under his leadership, the PPPC Government has been the cleanest in Guyana’s history. Attorney General Anil Nandlall, SC, has repeatedly trumpeted how the government has ‘respect for the rule of law and order.’ Both men should be commended for daring rough seas to deliver those postures and the messages embedded in them.

There are claims about what is clean and respect for the law, on the one hand, and then there are developments coming out of the US that involve sanctions. The two don’t go together, because what is being said here at the highest levels, and what is coming out of the US from high government offices, are at war with each other. What is going on in Guyana, and who is on the right side of the law?

One round of sanctions may be given a nod as a random development, an outlier that has no relevance to the true state of where Guyana is today under the PPPC Government, and with President Ali in the driver’s seat. But there has been more than one set of sanctions, and then other developments that are not unrelated. In summary, the actions of US authorities give every appearance of sanctions under a different cover at different times. Among those, were special airport escorts, temporary airport stoppages of free passage, for the purpose of questioning right there in the airport facilities. Among those given the special welcome by US authorities were government ministers, government friends, and senior police officers. For those who held diplomatic passports, the precaution of sensible pre-travel preparation arranged with attorneys helped to avoid the worst.

One of the first clue of what was in store in the US came about when a permanent secretary had her cellphone taken away at an American port of entry. She was more than an ordinary and very senior government officer. Her role placed her very close to Guyana’s national security apparatus. But she ended up being placed on the US sanctions list, giving a black eye to the PPPC Government. To make matters worse, government actions and those of some of its senior members led observers to believe that the sanctioned permanent secretary was being coddled.

Also, some members of a Guyanese family were also sanctioned by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, which identified a litany of allegations. But there was something that stood out like a sore thumb, again set those sanctions apart. It was public knowledge in Guyana that the family enjoyed a very close relationship to the PPPC Government, and an even closer one with President Ali. Citizens do not put their very expensive luxury vehicles at the disposal of a president for use at his inauguration ceremony.

No ordinary relationship was that one, which has since blown up due to allegations of tax fraud, and counter allegations of leadership collusion. It has been a royal mess with national implications, while leaving a trail of national embarrassment. Now the embarrassment extends some more, with more sanctions on a range of Guyanese. The latest list of US sanctions identifies four Guyanese, the most prominent of which is a senior superintendent in the Guyana Police Force. He is not a stranger in the local environment. His name had featured heavily in the record-breaking 4.4 tons of cocaine seized by US law enforcement at Matthews Ridge deep in Guyana’s remote rainforests. The Guyana Police and the Guyana Government are not having one of their better days. The now sanctioned senior officer was first transferred to oversee a vehicle repair shop, and only now is being sent on leave. There is the right to due process, and there is what gives the smell of protecting a fragile human asset, a friendly one. Due to the tattered state of local law enforcement, it is reasonable to believe that there could be more troubled officers.

This latest blow coming out of the US, with four Guyanese named, leaves the PPPC Government in a shaky place. Claims about clean government shatter on the rocks of local conditions, the local corruption culture. Sanctions have been a nightmare for the PPPC Government. Guyana is made to look like a gangster’s paradise.

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2 thoughts on “Sanctions”

  1. habeeb

    I believed this government has knowledge and know much more about
    those 4 recently identified by the US in the narcotics, especially that big
    honcho Sawh and another Police.
    This is Guyana, a relatively small country, where everybody knows something
    about someone, in or out of government, in or out of GPF, which is an arm
    of the Government of the day. Some things must be kept secret. Since drugs
    been moving daily all over Guyana (not a secret), it’s in the press. SOCU
    wasn’t doing such a good job with their daily arrests of the “SMALL MAN”.
    Perhaps, the BIG GUYS were untouchable, just to keep people in business ?

    Reply ↓

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